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the old path" -- which is a good way -- "and walk therein,
and ye shall find peace for your souls."
What is being proposed is to discard the old
path, which has given Maryland 100 years of good democratic
government, for a path which may be glittering, but which a
the end may bring the total destruction of democratic
government in this State, and bring corruption and despair
to the people of Maryland.
We are told by those who prepare the draft that
100 years ago when the Maryland Constitution was drafted
we were less than 100 years away from the Crown of England,
and the people wanted to reserve the right of franchise.
; We may be 200 years today away from the Crown
of England, but all over the world today the lights of
democratic government are disappearing, and what the people
in America are afraid of is totalitarian government such as
existed in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia.
The Constitutions of the various States in
this nation are the greatest bulkwark and strength of demo-
cratic government.
I ask this Convention to go slow in abolishing